That statement is not a farce. It is still mentioned (wording changed) in the official MAME FAQ and the "about" section at mamedev.org. That is the official stance of the MAME project. Whether that statement is made 100% seriously, or it's done to cover their backs in case of license/patent trolling it's another matter.
And over the years I think the people involved in the project has shown that MAME is really about proper documentation of the hardware. Removing patches and kludges and one-shot tricks to make certain games work, in order to faithfully describe how exactly the hardware operates is just one little example.
And that's the primary focus of the project. That doesn't mean the project doesn't have any other aims. Hence the excellent support for all kinds of inputs, the HLSL stuff, and similar things. Again, when one of these features messed up the documentation side and correct emulation part, it was removed, like hiscore savings. Other features started as a help for devs like state saving and DRCs so they don't have to wait 15 minutes to test if the texture in the third scene after the intro screen has been fixed.
And all this documentation is available to anyone who want to develop another kind of emulator that has as primary focus lightweight emulation in old or underpowered hardware, or reliving the classics playing in a 3D cabinet model in your screen, or substitute the original sprites with enhanced graphics (as RAINE and others have done in the past), or support force-feedback under name-your-os.
And yes, MAME has many features aimed at enhancing the playing experience, and the games are very playable (for the most part). You can argue what you want and interpret things the way you want, but remember that any interpretation is just an opinion, not a fact.
And remember, MAME is a condom 
Wound up, can't sleep, can't do anything right, little honey / Oh, since I set my eyes on you. / I tell you the truth.
I can't get it right / Get it right / Since I met you...
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Re: Question about MAME's intended purpose
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